Update on Lucky

They grow up so fast...sniff!

Okay, not that fast.

He's roughly three and a half weeks old now, and Lucky is doing well - he's learning to drink droplets of water when Alex mists the tank, and he's eating the bits of food we give him.  We're just waiting for him to learn that he is a predator, and while it's certainly a fun designation out in the wild, it doesn't mean "one who just sits there on a branch while humans bring tidbits."  As a predator, Lucky will need to learn that being a predator involves actively hunting his own food.  So we're working on that.  We get tiny crickets at the pet store and hope Lucky will pick up on the whole "pursuit" thing. 

It's hard not to spoil him, though.  Alex uses these long tweezer things to hand-feed bits of worm and those tiny crickets to Lucky - something that needs to end at some point soon.  But it's hard.  He's just so tiny and cute.

He was clinging to the plant in his tank this morning.  So tiny and helpless...I had to take a few pictures.

 

 
In other Lucky-related news (not that there's much of it), Lucky has a new home waiting for him, once he's ready to go.  (Ready as in, he can catch his own crickets.)  My friend Rosa's Foster Mom and her family are going to take Lucky. 

I'm thrilled, but Alex is probably MOST thrilled, because this is a family we know and they live in the neighborhood and will certainly provide a loving and supportive environment for the little guy.  Well, as loving and supportive an environment as a relatively anti-social, non-snuggling cold-blooded predator could possibly need.  Warmth, humidity, food and water.  That's enough.  And the fact that they're not strangers is HUGE for Alex's peace of mind.  Really. 

He was not looking forward to possibly selling Lucky through a pet store.  Not there's anything wrong with the people who buy lizards from pet stores - that's where all of ours have come from.  But this little guy is different.  He was born here.  We all, particularly Alex, feel rather protective of the little guy, even though he'd just as soon bite us on the finger as look at us.  At this point in his little lizardy life, he is dependent on us, and so, even if we look like really big tasty bugs to him - year-long walking feasts - we only see a tiny little helpless green baby when we look at him.

 
Gotta go.  Have to read "Goodnight Moon" to Lucky.  It's nap time.  Shhhh.

Comments

[Lynne]

you are all SO soft... LOL